Chapter 290: Midterm practicals

Ten days later…

In the cold air of the early morning, over two hundred students, the entire batch of freshers, stood in multiple lines at the foot of a massive forest-covered mountain spanning an area of around fifty square kilometres.

It was one of the hundreds of mountains that covered nearly sixty percent of the campus.

Before the curious students, on a high platform, stood two imposing middle-aged men.

The one on the right had short cyan hair, deep black eyes, and a short, unkempt beard covering the lower half of his face. His muscular frame was draped in formal attire, though the top three buttons of his shirt were left open, revealing his chest hair. He was Victor Vael, the first-year professor for the Fundamentals of Combat, Aura Control and Tactics.

The other had a relatively slim figure. He had shoulder-length black hair, a broad chin, and an unusually sharp nose. His eyebrows were knitted into two inverted V’s, which only added to his shrewd appearance. He wore a plain white shirt with its collar tightly buttoned and a long maroon coat over it. He was Dorin Casvel, the first-year professor for the Fundamentals of Magic, Ring Attunement and Spellcraft.

In his usual friendly tone, Victor began, “Good morning, my lovely students. Are you all prepared for your midterm practical examinations?”

“Yes, Sir!!!!” The students’ booming voices echoed across the field. Only about half of them had shouted, yet their combined voices made it sound as though twice as many students were present.

“Tch, so loud,” Dorin muttered, his brows furrowing. His reaction was understandable, given that only the students from the Order of Blades had shouted.

He stepped forward, one hand resting behind his back, carrying himself with the elegance of a noble.

“Ahem,” he cleared his throat before beginning in a calm tone that nevertheless reached the ears of every student gathered in the open field before the mountain. “You must have already received the information regarding the practical examination’s theme. The academy has decided to evaluate the students from both the Order of Blades and the Order of Rings simultaneously.”

His eyes scanned the aspiring mages among the students, causing them to straighten their backs as he continued, “The theme of this practical is simple: Hunters and Survivors.”

He raised his hand, and ten figures emerged from the forest behind the platform. They were dressed in simple clothes: black T-shirts and trousers, with white masks covering their faces. Around their necks hung small, rectangular tokens that glowed with faint crimson energy.

“These are your seniors who failed a subject in previous year. For them, this trial is their chance to clear their compartment. They will be the hunters. All of you,” Dorin’s gaze swept across the lines, “are the survivors.”

A wave of murmurs rolled through the crowd. Victor chuckled and clapped his hands twice.

“Easy, easy! Don’t look so pale, kids. Let me explain the fun part.” He grinned. “Each of you is wearing a token worth three points. To pass, you need three points. Keep your own token until the end, and you pass. Simple, right?”

“It is not simple,” Dorin cut in flatly. “Because the hunters will be coming for those tokens.”

“And that’s why we’ve hidden around three hundred more tokens throughout the forest!” Victor spread his arms toward the mountain. “Each is worth one point. Lose your token? No problem. Bring back three forest tokens, and you still pass.”

A boy in the front row raised his hand. “Sir, if the tokens are in the forest, can’t the hunters collect them too?”

Dorin’s eyes narrowed, and the boy shrank back. “A reasonable question, asked in an unreasonable manner. Raise your hand after I finish speaking.”

He turned back to the lines. “Listen carefully, because this is the core of the exam. The tokens you possess carry a mana signature. Forest tokens are neutral. A hunter who picks up a neutral token gains nothing.”

“But!” Victor added, lifting a finger, “once one of you imprints your own signature on a forest token, it becomes yours. And a marked token is the only thing a hunter can score points from. Which means…”

“They must hunt you,” Dorin finished. “There is no other way for them to earn points. They cannot take tokens from the forest, nor can they take them from each other unless the token is already marked.”

Victor’s grin turned just a little sharper. “One more thing. The hunters can see the locations of your tokens on their phones. So give up on thinking that you can hide your tokens somewhere in the forest until the exam ends. They cannot see the locations of the forest tokens, but the moment those tokens are moved from their original positions, their locations will also be uploaded to the hunters’ phones.”

Many students released a collective sigh as their tactics were destroyed before they could even put them into practice.

“Now, the hunters,” Dorin said, glancing at the ten figures. “They carry tokens of their own, each worth ten points. If one of you manages to take a token from a hunter, that single token will be enough to clear the exam and earn you a reward from the academy: One thousand credits.”

A ripple of gasps echoed through the students. Their fearful demeanour turned predatory as they stared at the hunters. Even clearing a dangerous B-Ranked quest only rewarded five to six hundred credits. The reward for hunting the hunters was too valuable to pass up.

“The exam lasts until evening,” Dorin concluded. “Now spread out. You have half an hour before the hunters begin their hunt!”

As the students began rushing into the forest, Max approached Chloe, who was standing at the end of the third line, obviously alone, given her introverted nature.

“Yo, Chloe! Where is Vlad?” he asked, confused. His amber eyes had already scanned the entire batch, but he still couldn’t find him anywhere. “Don’t tell me he’s skipping the practicals now, too.”

Chloe shook her head. She pointed towards the platform, or more accurately, towards one of the hunters wearing a mask resembling a joker’s face, its creepy smile stretching from ear to ear.

“There he is.”